almost an entire year ago now, i spilled a bit of smoothie on my laptop (dell inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1 is what it said when i checked the qr code) it wasnt much i dont think, and was on the top left corner of the keyboard. i turned it off almost immediately. at the time, i was at my grandparents, and nothing could be done until i got home a few weeks later. i told my dad about the issue, and he agreed to take it to get repaired

the spill happened in around october of 2025. it took him until late january 2026 to take it to bestbuy to get it looked at. due to a lot of personal family issues, there was nothing i couldve done to have gotten it looked at any sooner. however, the worker at best buy did not even look at it before saying that the motherboard was probably shot, and that it would cost over $700 to repair. so we left.

afterwards, my dad ended up opening it up and agreed that the motherboard looked dirty and likely couldnt be fixed. he was stingy about me looking at it myself, as ive never done a tech repair before.

fast forward many many months to today, where i finally was able to look inside the laptop myself. i noticed that the keys around where the spill was are no longer sticky, which they were INCREDIBLY sticky initially, which i cant tell if this is a good sign or not. i took the back off, and from what little bit of the motherboard i can see, it genuinely doesnt look dirty at all to me. i wanted to try to remove some more pieces so i could get a better look and see what all might need cleaning or if it just needed to be replaced, but couldnt get the battery out because of how hard the screws were to remove. im going to try again tomorrow morning with some help

the computer still hasnt been turned on since the initial spill, it was briefly charged before being taken in to bestbuy (legitimately for maybe like 10 minutes at the absolute most) but aside from that, nothing has been done

all this to say and with pictures provided, can this laptop be saved?

any help at all will be appreciated, thank you! :)

⟐ Answer edited August 07, 2026 at 10:05 MST

All my best wishes from Germany,

Magnus

⟐ Answer accepted July 21, 2026 at 15:51 MST

⟐ Answered July 04, 2026 at 21:20 MST

⟐ Answered June 03, 2026 at 23:34 MST

⟐ Answer edited June 02, 2026 at 12:57 MST

I tried rebooting, resetting touchpad setting and windows update and none of them worked, any thoughts?

⟐ Commented April 24, 2026 at 2:31 MST

⟐ Commented February 24, 2026 at 10:43 MST

Any hints on how to repair this? If not replacing parts, at least getting it back together with some adhesive would be ok if there are diagrams of what it' supposed to look like.

⟐ Answer accepted December 14, 2025 at 0:51 MST

⟐ Answered December 03, 2025 at 4:05 MST

⟐ Answered October 31, 2025 at 6:19 MST

Thank you!

⟐ Commented September 23, 2025 at 1:11 MST

⟐ Edited July 12, 2025 at 0:02 MST

I recently decided to revive the hardware of my dell inspiron 7570. I started off by replacing the battery, which was on its last legs. I got the bigger 56Wh battery from the official dell website (I didnt want to risk getting shady batteries as it powers literally everything). Also took the time to fully unscrew everything and clean out some dust with a toothbrush and pressurized co2.

Not too long after the battery repair, the touchpad started behaving weirdly. Moving the mouse didn't work. Clicking didn't work. Next boot, clicking worked, but not moving the mouse. Not too long after, nothing worked.

I pretty much eliminated the possibility of it being a software issue. I run linux and checked dmesg and journal for any issues. The kernel simply does not recognize it even has a touchpad anymore. Libinput does not register any input from the touchpad either. I tried different kernel versions and booted a whole different linux version (fedora 42) from a live USB. No avail.

I proceeded to buy a new touchpad. No avail. I bought a new ribbon cable that connects the touchpad to the motherboard. Nothing still.

At this point, I fear I may have simply destroyed the connector on the motherboard, somehow? My questions are as follows:

1. What may have caused this, so short after the battery repair?
2. How can I further investigate the issue?
3. Is it worth it still to buy a new motherboard, or is my laptop simply giving out, and reviving is a lost cause?
4. If getting a new MB is worth it (and won't run into the same issue), what are some trustworthy sites?

⟐ Edited by author June 20, 2025 at 10:24 MST

⟐ Answer edited June 07, 2025 at 8:09 MST

⟐ Answered April 17, 2025 at 23:34 MST

⟐ Answered March 25, 2025 at 15:29 MST

1. Plug it back in and format drive through Windows.
2. Disassemble the chassis and remove the hard drive so that I can wipe/destroy it manually.

What's the safest way to go about this? It seems risky to plug it in, but it also seems risky to disassemble it.

⟐ Edited February 21, 2025 at 21:00 MST

⟐ Answered January 15, 2025 at 13:08 MST

⟐ Commented January 12, 2025 at 20:15 MST

⟐ Commented October 23, 2024 at 2:21 MST